Two journalists employed by Urdu-language Baloch daily Azadi went missing in the Pakistan province of Balochistan within three days of each other, on February 29 and March 3, according to delayed reports received by Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). The two are feared to have been abducted.
“The current deterioration in press freedom in Balochistan has become quite intolerable," Paris-based RSF said in a statement. “These abductions —of Hameed Baloch and Khalil Khosa — coming on the heels of the February 9 murder of Chishti Mujahid, are part of the disastrous consequences of the fighting between government forces and Baloch separatist groups. We urge the authorities to do everything possible to protect journalists and to come to the help of those who are still missing.”
According to the Balochistan Union of Journalists (BUJ), Baloch was abducted on March 3 in Taftan, near the Iranian border. “His disappearance may be due to the security services, tribal rivalry or political parties," BUJ president Mujeeb Ahmed told RSF. Another BUJ member said, “Influential tribes must be implicated, as was the case with Riaz Mengal (of the newspaper Intikhab), who we thought had been kidnapped by security services, but was abducted by tribal chiefs.”
Khosa has not been seen since attending a news conference in the southern Baloch town of Nasirabad on February 29. His family thinks he may have been kidnapped because of articles criticising Baloch nationalist parties that took part in the recent parliamentary elections while other Baloch nationalist groups boycotted them.
Based in the Baloch provincial capital of Quetta, Azadi is still without news of its young reporter Javed Lehri, who has been missing since November 30 last. Editor Muhammad Asif Baloch thinks he was kidnapped by the security services, who kidnapped the head of the Baloch Voice TV station, Munir Mengal, in June 2006. Mengal was eventually handed over to the police, who are still holding him despite court orders for his release.
